Consuelo (novel)

Consuelo

Author	George Sand
Country	France
Language	French
Publisher	Louis de Potter
Publication date	1842-1843 [1]
Published in English	1850 [2]

Consuelo is a novel by George Sand, first published serially in 1842-1843 in La Revue indépendante, a periodical founded in 1841 by Sand, Pierre Leroux and Louis Viardot. According to the Nuttall Encyclopædia, it is "[Sand's] masterpiece; the impersonation of the triumph of moral purity over manifold temptations."

The character of Consuelo was supposedly modeled after Louis Viardot's wife, the soprano Pauline Viardot. Pauline Viardot was a good friend of both Sand's and of her lover, Frédéric Chopin.

File:Pauline Viardot.JPG

Pauline Viardot, the supposed inspiration for Consuelo

First sentence

«Oui, oui, Mesdemoiselles, hochez la tête tant qu'il vous plaira; la plus sage et la meilleure d'entre vous, c'est ... Mais je ne veux pas le dire; car c'est la seule de ma classe qui ait de la modestie, et je craindrais, en la nommant, de lui faire perdre à l'instant même cette rare vertu que je vous souhaite.... Lalala»

"Go on then, young ladies, shake your heads at me, but I'll tell you this... the best behaved and the cleverest girl among you is... — no, I won't tell you who, because she is the only one of my class who has any modesty. I am afraid that if I pointed her out here, she would instantly lose that rare virtue. It is one that I wish the rest of you had more of... Lalala" —

Theatrical treatments

Two operas are based on this novel:

• Consuelo by Alfonso Rendano (1888)
• Consuelo by Giacomo Orefice (1895)

External links

• The book on Project Gutenberg in French:
  • Consuelo, Tome 1 (1861)
  • Consuelo, Tome 2 (1861)
  • Consuelo, Tome 3 (1861)
• (French) Consuelo, audio version
• Consuelo at the Open Library. Includes English editions.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: